and all is well?
Good morning! It’s 7.00am GMT on 16th January 2026. We’re sixteen days into the new year, the weekend is already whispering to us from just around the corner.
How’s it going? How does it look so far? This morning, Alexa pinged before the kettle had finished boiling. “Jon – there is an amber alert…” Now, that’ll get your attention. Heart rate up before the coffee’s even poured. An alert. A warning. Something’s not right. The sense that you ought to act, but you’re not quite sure how.
And truth be told, for some, that sums up these first few weeks of the year. Not a disaster, necessarily. But not smooth sailing either. The amber lights are blinking. Something in the background says, pay attention. Maybe it’s your inbox. Maybe your health. Maybe that God-focused resolution that didn’t make it past New Year’s Day. Or the seeming silence of God, in a moment you had hoped would be full of His voice.
Solomon brings much needed encouragement, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” That’s not soft guidance. That’s solid. You can take that to the bank of your life. In our frantic attempt to make sense of the alerts, the chaos, the slight tremors in our routines, this word remains unshaken, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
And it meets us right here – in a mish-mash culture that offers plenty of uneven surfaces, values. Your Bible app is probably two taps away on your phone, right next to Instagram. Maybe between Facebook and, more questionably, “X.” You open your phone to read Scripture, but you end up scrolling someone’s holiday in Goa. Or a stranger’s argument about bus lanes in Sheffield. Or a theological debate you never asked to be part of. And somehow, the heart slowly gets distracted, leaning, ever so slightly, on the wrong things. Even good things.
When Solomon interrupts your pace of life, your goals, dreams and aspirations with the words, “don’t lean on your own understanding”, he’s not asking you for a cerebral alt+ctrl+del . He’s steadying the ship, reminding us that our instinct is to trust what we feel, what we see and what makes sense to us in the moment, but those instincts, however well-informed, are not always anchored in truth. Instead of being anchored, they can be adrift; swayed by headlines, likes, late-night conversations at Starbucks, or the mislead certainty of your favourite influencer’s post.
The good news is that there is a way to live that isn’t driven by the tyranny of urgent notifications. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Yes, him again. Solomon keeps popping up in our feed – the algorithm of the Holy Spirit at work …
In all your ways acknowledge Him. Not just when you’re choosing a new job or praying for healing, but also when you’re choosing how to spend precious small moments between meetings and events – or wondering if anyone notices the tired look behind your smile.
Acknowledge Him there. Whisper His name. Speak it under your breath in the lift, or in the car, or when you’re walking the miles around your supermarket looking for that ‘stuff’ you never need. Until today. He sees. He knows. And He leads.
He will make your paths straight. That’s not a promise of ease. It’s not a straight line to your desired outcome. It’s direction. Clarity in confusion. Grace in every uncertain step. Even when your own understanding feels more persuasive.
Sixteen, l-o-n-g dark, wet, cold days in. Amber alerts and all. Let your heart lean hard on the only One who never changes.